Changes in Abiotic Factors

Life is the composition of living things and their activities or interactions. Life is split into two parts or categories, which are the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Abiotic factors are the physical features/factors in an ecosystem that affect the organisms and their surroundings. For example, water, temperature, rocks, weather, and wind are all abiotic factors that shape an ecosystem. Biotic factors are all the living things that live or exist in an ecosystem. Examples of biotic factors are plants, animals, and fungi. Living organisms rely on abiotic factors in order to sustain life. For example, the amount of fresh water available can affect the population size in an ecosystem. If there is enough supply of fresh water, the population size can be stable or it can grow exponentially. If there is a limited supply of fresh water, the population size might reach a plateau, where organisms compete to get the amount of water that is enough for them. If there is no or very little supply of fresh water, the population size will decrease, and organisms will have to migrate to other ecosystems and adapt to them in order to survive and reproduce.

The following experiment confirms that living organisms do depend on abiotic factors in an ecosystem. This experiment shows how a fish's (which is a biotic factor or a living organism) breathing rate is affected by water temperature (which is an abiotic factor). As water temperature increases, the fish's breathing rate increases as well. The reason for that is because when water temperature increases, there will be less oxygen dissolved in the water, which causes the fish to flux its gills faster and faster to obtain enough amount of oxygen, leading to a higher metabolic rate.

If the experiment was based on lower water temperatures, the fish's behavior would be different than in higher water temperatures. This is because as water temperature decreases, the fish's breathing rate decreases as well. The reason for that is because when water temperature decreases, there will be more or a stable amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, which causes the fish to flux its gills slower because it already has enough amount of oxygen for survival, leading to a lower metabolic rate. Thus, the fish's behavior will be slow and sluggish. And this proves how living organisms react to changes in abiotic factors.